Tragic Stafford mum's plea as lorry driver jailed

AS A LORRY driver starts a five-year jail sentence this week for causing the death of a young Great Haywood teaching assistant, her mother has made a heartfelt plea to drivers not to use mobile phones.

Laura Jane Thomas, known as “Tink” to her friends because of her petite size, died in the accident on the A5 near Shrewsbury.

Laura, 20, of Hunters Close, and her fiance Lewis Pagett, had broken down on their way to a holiday in Aberystwyth when the lorry ploughed into them.

Lorry driver Ian Glover, 44, from Birmingham, had been flicking through profiles of women on an explicit dating site, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.